Jefferies reflects on GT World Challenge debut
Motor racing sensation Axcil Jefferies (pictured) is happy about his debut performance in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup which saw his team Madpanda Motorsport secure second in the championship, in the final race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Zimbabwean joined Spain-based team Madpanda in July and competed alongside founder, Argentine Ezequiel Companc in the No. 90 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Spaniard Jorge Cabezas Catalan and Patrick Assenheimer from Germany complete the team and raced in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup.
Jefferies and Compac had the most promising of starts to the competition after they managed two podium finishes, including a victory, in their first race at Misano, Italy in August.
“It was our first season in GT World Challenge which is for sure one of, if not the most competitive or professional GT Championships in the world. Joining a new team it was always going to be tough but at the end of the season I was happy and proud with what we could achieve,” Jefferies told Weekly Digest exclusively.
“We showed great pace throughout the year and were able to pick up a couple of podiums, on victory and finally ended position two in the Championship. I learnt a lot and I can't wait to come back and fight for the championship in 2021,” he said.
The Sprint Cup was competed over four rounds, in four different cities and four different circuit around Europe.
It began at Misano, Italy before moving to Mgany — Cours in France, moving to Zandvoort, Netherlands and winding up in Barcelona, which Jefferies picks as his favourite circuit.
“It was pretty cool to visit some new circuits this year. I definitely say Zandvoort and Barcelona were the two circuits that really stood out for me. But if I had to pick a favourite from this year it would probably be Barcelona,” he said.
He also speaks about being teammates with boss and team owner Compac in the Sprint Cup
“It's been very interesting. Obviously it's a bit of a difficult role for Ezequiel to be a driver and team owner but we have a good working relationship and were able to learn quite a lot from each other,” he said.
An interesting weekend for Jefferies was when he had to shuffle between two competitions a little over a fortnight ago.
Jefferies had to race for in the Sprint Cup at Zandvoort on a Saturday before jumping onto the next plane for Germany where he was representing Konrad Motorsport at ADAC Total 24-Hour Rennen Nurburgring in Germany 24 hours later.
“It was definitely a cool and unique experience. I am grateful for both teams allowing me to do it. However, in an ideal world it's better to just focus on one event as it's so competitive you need to be 100% focused. The Mercedes and Lamborghini are completely different to drive so going back and forth can be quite challenging,” Jefferies said.
But now that the GT World Challenge is over, Jefferies can now focus on his other team, Konrad Motorsport for whom he has a couple or races before the end of the year.
“The racing season is not over just yet for me. I still have a couple of races with Konrad Motorsport in our Lamborghini GT3 where I'm hoping to finish off strong.”
Jefferies racing went off to a flying start after he led his team Toksport WRT, on to a second-place finish at the Dubai 24 Hour Race in the United Arab Emirates in January. However, the coronavirus outbreak disrupted a busy schedule for the sport around the world for several months before it resumed in June.